It's
Saturday, someone just said the time is 8:00 or somewhere close to that. I'm beginning to calm down to a fuzzy haze of
pain, that shot of
morphine is kicking in. Some one is asking me questions, I try to answer them but it's hard to talk through clenched teeth. I answer that I think this happened around 4 pm. The voice tells me that I was admitted into the first and smaller emergency room at 4:30 pm. I reply that my accident must have happened closer to 3 pm then. Someone else asks why it took so long for me to get transferred why hadn't they brought me in an ambulance, then goes on to say this is ridiculous to have made me wait so long. My mind whirls, there is several people doing several things to me at once, I try to focus on something. I explain that I was dropped off at the first hospital and had to wait for my
husband to come back with a vehicle. I have no
insurance and didn't want to incur more cost then I had to. A woman grabs my hand, syaing it's alright dear we're going to take care of you no matter the cost, we are more worried about you then money. Somewhere in my mind there is a laugh at what their accounting people would say if they had heard that.
I'm shaking uncontrollably, I must be in shock. Some lady keeps moving a needle around in my arm, she's trying to take blood but my body refuses to give any up. The doctor walks into my little corner of the emergency room and introduces himself. He takes one look at the x-rays, then states the obvious. Your leg is broken alright. I try to smile, afterall he's the one who's going to set my bones, I should try and humor him. My leg is more broken than microsoft software to be more accurate, I have broken both the tibia and fibula in my left leg.
The nice man who gave me the morphine shot is back and is asking how I feel. I try and be brave and tell him I feel better but the pain is excruciating. I ask him when I can get another shot, he smiles and says he'll be right back with another dose for me. I sigh with relief. Within minutes they have given me several shots of various pain killers. For the first time in hours I am calm and I can barely feel my leg. It does not take the doctor long to set and cast my leg. He's in a hurry, their waiting for him in another room for a surgery he is supposed to be performing. He takes the time to explain that he thinks I will need surgery myself. He tells me how it is possible he won't be able to set my leg properly because of how even the break is across. He will probably have to put a permanent rod down in between the bones to stabelize them. If he does that then I will be able to be basically mobile in a month, if I end up with just a cast I will be in a cast up to my hip for at least 3 months. I hope to be able to have just a cast even though the healing will take much longer. I have already had one surgery this year and really do not want to have another. That other surgery is another story of a ruined saturday night in the emergency room, that can wait for another day.
As I leave the hospital with my script of vicodin in hand a nurse says good luck to me. Instantly the phrase break a leg comes to mind and I smile in spite of myself.